commentary
As the nation’s health crumbles under Trump, King’s words from 1966 remain more timely than ever
Published
January 19, 2026 9:00AM (EST)
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In 1966 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a profound and prescient statement about health injustice, calling it “the most shocking and inhumane” form of inequality. Sixty years later, after notable efforts to right that wrong by expanding access to health care, most notably with the Affordable Care Act, health injustice is escalating in the United States. Our collective physical and mental health is deteriorating. Our public health infrastructure is being dismantled before our very eyes. Our health care system is on the brink of collapse.
This year in particular, as the Trump administration continues its assault on King’s legacy, there will be lots of commentary about what he would have thought and said about the current domestic and global state of affairs. But when it comes to our collective national health, King’s words remain as timely as ever.
My research shows that health injustice is most pronounced among the most marginalized — immigrants, people of color, the poor. Our leaders’ policy decisions are at the crux of this injustice, permeating every part of our society.
As a sociologist who has explored the impact of health reform on health care access over the last decade, my research shows that health injustice is most pronounced among the most marginalized — immigrants, people of color, the poor. Our leaders’ policy decisions are at the crux of this injustice, permeating every part of our society. The result is lower life expectancy, more illness, social isolation and overall pessimism about our society.
Our physical and mental health is spiraling. Americans’ health outcomes are the worst among peer countries. Preventive and chronic conditions are particularly dire. We are seeing higher rates of cancer among young adults, women are dying in childbirth at unacceptable rates and gun violence still claims too many lives.
Our mental health is in similar decline, with rates of addiction, depression and social isolation increasing. The current sociopolitical climate, with its endless loop of made-for-reality-television plots and traumatic developments at home and abroad, and the descent of our democracy into fascism, is making matters worse, leaving many Americans in a state of despair for our present and future. “There’s no way not to lose sleep at night or to not have a high level of stress or anxiety,” an immigrant health care advocate told me in 2019 during the first Trump administration.
Put simply, we are not well.
But as our nation gets sicker, we won’t be able to turn to our health care system. It remains unaffordable for most Americans, with costs and premiums skyrocketing. While politicians were playing chicken with Americans’ lives during last year’s government shutdown, subsidies for the Affordable Care Act expired — and an estimated 20 million middle-class Americans are expected to lose coverage.